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Friday, May 20, 2011

Marijuana and the War on Drugs: Where Will it All End?

Once something is prohibited -- such as alcohol in the 1920s-1930s and marijuana today -- huge government resources go into enforcement. In turn, the traffickers become increasingly inventive. Take, for instance, the latest method for smuggling marijuana into the United States from Mexico.

Now that border patrols in California and Arizona have made it more difficult to smuggle tons of marijuana into the United States, drug cartels have turned to ultralight aircraft. Yes, those small motorized hang-gliders that vacation resorts rent so that their guests can see the local sights from up in the air. Watch out, though, if you hear the buzz late at night near a field in California. If you're unlucky, a 250-pound bale of marijuana could land on you. The Los Angeles Times reports:

The ultralight activity is seen as strong evidence that smugglers are having an increasingly difficult time getting marijuana over land crossings. Authorities noticed a surge in flights in Imperial County after newly erected fencing along California's southeast corner blocked smugglers from crossing desert dunes in all-terrain vehicles….

"We're trained to look down and at the fence. Now we have to look up for tell-tale signs of ultralight traffic," said Roy D. Villarreal, deputy chief patrol agent of the El Centro sector in the Imperial Valley.

Where will it end? Euan Wilson of The Socionomics Institute studied the alcohol and drug prohibition eras to see if there were similarities. His research includes the role of social mood during prohibition, and provides a fascinating look at when and why society sanctions drugs -- and when society decides enough is enough. Here's the conclusion he came to in "The Coming Collapse of a Modern Prohibition,"published in the July 2009 issue of The Socionomist:

Marijuana and the War on Drugs: How It All Might End The story of Prohibition after the 1929 stock market peak is a model for how the current crisis in Mexico and the U.S. is likely to play out. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Chicago streets ran red with the blood of victims connected to the alcohol industry. In a quest for territorial control, gangs expanded bootlegging operations beyond Chicago, with Capone’s reach eventually extending into Florida. As bootlegging routes grew, so did associated violence. A few defenders of Prohibition steadfastly supported The Untouchables, but in time, the majority of the public simply grew fed up with the criminal warring and the corruption, violence, and death associated with law enforcement efforts. In the end, public mood demanded change and Prohibition was repealed.

It appears inevitable, then, that drug-related carnage — and public disgust with it — will spread as well. As the violence increasingly affects the U.S., the American government will counter public anxiety with assurances that everything is under control and that the situation is contained to a few small areas. Southern regions of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas will likely see the same violence that is now plaguing Mexican states.

Some will argue to step up the Drug War and start mass executions. But as mood falls and the death toll among Americans rises, the public will become open to what now may seem like radical ideas about how best to deal with marijuana use in society. The dialogue about marijuana decriminalization will cease to center on morality and instead will shift to stopping the kidnapping, murder, brutality and bloodshed. Finally, the people and their government will end the Drug War.

Prohibition also provides perspective on what society will look like after marijuana is decriminalized. Following the repeal of the 18th Amendment, organized crime and the violence that came with it almost completely disappeared as black market vendors lost the one tool that enabled them to maintain their monopoly and get unimaginably rich: illegality.

In the two years since Wilson wrote this article, Mexico has suffered hundreds of deaths related to drug smuggling, while more U.S. communities have decided that medical marijuana is acceptable. The takeaway message from this story in The Socionomist is that the same social mood that drives the stock market also plays a significant role in popular attitudes regarding the prohibitions against drugs and alcohol.

11 comments:

After some research on both sides of the issue--I changed my stand and am now for decriminalization. I think there is a way to effectively do it.

Here are a couple of websites to start your own investigation: http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/justice-and-civil-liberties/decriminalizing-drugs/ and Jefferson Fish has written a book called "How to Legalize Drugs", review: http://www.bookreview.com/$spindb.query.listreview2.booknew.2061

Sure 'Prohibitionism' will be ended, but it will not be a clean break from the 'drug war' past thinking either when it happens. An example of how 'Prohibitionism' often fails and is 'ended' eventually but only half way, is in US laws against prostitution, which are every bit as idiotic as the laws making so many drugs illegal. Strangely enough though, prostitution in the US remains illegal yet has been legalized too, at both one and the same time!

If a woman or man asks you to pay them say $250 dollars for them to then have sex with you, both you and the prostitute can be held as having committed an illegal act. Yet, if the prostitute comes and says, 'HEY! Let's us two both make a film together and you pay me $250 for the sex acts we do in the film...How About It?!!!' then in the incredible wisdom of current US law, no crime will said to have been committed, and instead the FBI will protect your copyrights on the new 'production'!

Our current laws about drug consumption are just as idiotic and mixed up irreality as that. But irreality does morph and later on "Prohibitionism' will 'come to an end', we will end up eventually saying. Porn was decriminalized, therefore legalizing prostitution, yet prostitution remains illegal unless done as part of a porn production!

I guess if everybody wants to be a druggie,what the hell Majority rule, The USA is in a freefall decline anyway, the only problem is that the USA is a welfare state which is a situation where there are more and more people sucking the Govt titty,fewer and fewer Earning the Money to pay the Freeloaders Druggies and Minoritys are the vast Majority or the Freeloaders,Just what do you expect a hard working non drug tax payer to do?? Legalize drugs, open the borders, COLLAPSE THE SOCIAL WELFARE SYSTEM COMPLETLEY ???? The US Is BANKRUPT YOU PEOPLE DON'T GET IT !!

Ridiculous! This isn't about marijuana, it's about a lust for money that includes the marketing of cocaine, amphetamines, heroin, and human lives. Legalizing marijuana will simply make it more accessible for youths in our country who are already struggling with addictions.

Drop the "war on drugs." Legalize marijuana. Retrain all the law enforcement and agencies associated to create energy for the Americas. Create wind farms, solar plants, electrical grids across the US. Quit outsourcing manufacturing to other countries. Bring back proud manufacturing in the US. Make "Made in the USA" household preferred again. Empty the prisons and put people to work. Get rid of the national debt. Quit being the world police. You cannot eliminate drug use. Wake up.

Oh, never mind, that sounds like too much work and the slogan family values is not included so our weak leadership could never adopt this.

Before you decriminalize you have be objective about what the goals are AND do it in conjunction with removing American dependence on gov't handouts.

I don't do drugs and I think if it is decriminalized AND we all wake up and get some self-esteem and self-initiative, you will see a decline in use. When you can't lay around on the gov't welfare dole and smoke pot all day, and you start to get hungry, you might think about getting a job. Doing something with your life...

Decriminalization is not the answer. It will still be illegal, just not as illegal. The sale and distribution will still be illegal, which will never work. 10:18 was right, we will never be able to stop people from using drugs. People have used narcotics thousands of years longer than our country has even existed. All of you talking about people taking advantage of welfare don't have a clue what you're talking about. Welfare money is so small that you can't even afford a pair of nice shoes for your kid much less some herb. Legalization will keep addiction from being some kind of dark, unspoken problem and help people realize that it is a condition in the brain, just like being OCD. Once we take the moral angle off of this, we can start moving forward. Economically, ethically, and morally, we have to quit persecuting those who believe differently from mainstream white America.